Irish history

BICO and Stalino-Unionism

Ideas of two Irelands have long been common. In the Provo war from 1971 to the 1990s, they were common on the nationalist side, only the Protestant Unionists were condemned by some of their characteristics as a bad Ireland, as “pro-imperialists”. They were thus condemned by the sometimes openly sectarian “left”, in the Irish National Liberation Army, members of which gunned down people at random in a Pentecostal church in Darkley, Co Armagh, in 1983. They were in fact so condemned by the Provos, whose “devils” were Unionist shibboleths. It was strange to see the Unionists as only “pro...

Connolly, unions and politics

Liam McNulty, author of a forthcoming book on James Connolly, and co-author of the introduction to the new Workers’ Liberty collection of James Connolly’s writings on “Effective Trade Unionism”, spoke to Solidarity about the collection. As far as I know, Connolly did not directly address the “mass strike” debates arising from the 1905 Russian Revolution — for instance, in German Social Democracy between Luxemburg, Kautsky and others. He was, of course, aware of and inspired by the example of 1905. However, his most direct comments in May 1915 in an article on the “Moscow insurrection” focus...

The Irish in history

Part of a series of articles on Connolly: workersliberty.org/connolly This is part two of the subsection on “Connolly and the Protestant workers” of a series on “Connolly, politically unexpurgated”. Part one, with an introduction, was in Solidarity 641 . Perhaps no race on earth has absorbed more heterogeneous elements into itself and at the same time given out more of the best of its blood to the upbuilding of foreign and alien races than the Irish. All races are mixed more or less; a pure race does not exist. In all the world there cannot be found a territory of any size still inhabited...

How Connolly linked class struggle to socialism

Liam McNulty, author of a forthcoming book on James Connolly, and co-author of the introduction to the new Workers’ Liberty book of James Connolly’s writings on “Effective Trade Unionism”, spoke to Solidarity . In 1918 John Reed, just returned to the USA from revolutionary Russia, reported that Lenin thought Daniel De Leon to be “the greatest of modern Socialists — the only one who had added anything to Socialist thought since Marx”. The addition was the idea that a workers’ government would be based on organisations developed from workplace struggle against capital, such as industrial unions...

Connolly and the Protestant workers (1)

In March 1972, the London government abolished Protestant Unionist Home Rule in the Six Counties and substituted for it direct rule from Westminster.

Connolly and a history relevant now

A review of our new pamphlet, a collection of writings by James Connolly on effective trade unionism. Click here to order now James Connolly, who was executed after the 1916 Easter Rising, is, along with James Larkin, Ireland’s most famous socialist and union leader. This pamphlet, Effective Trade Unionism , contains his writings on industrial unionism, in both Ireland and the USA, and his account of the 1913 Lockout in Dublin. Connolly is a clear and concise writer and you don’t need to know any of the historical background to be able to understand the pamphlet. But read up on the historical...

Connolly on partition (2)

Part of a series of articles on Connolly: workersliberty.org/connolly Connolly and partition These texts are from the Irish Trade Union Congress of 1-3 June 1914. They followed on Connolly’s first articles (see Solidarity 639 ) responding to the British Liberal government’s statement on 9 March 1914 that it would amend the Irish Home Rule Bill so that counties in north-east Ireland (or the “county boroughs” of Belfast and Derry cities) which voted for it would be excluded from Home Rule for six years. They came before the Liberal government introduced an Amending Bill on those lines in the...

Connolly on partition (1)

Part of a series of articles on Connolly: workersliberty.org/connolly Labour and the proposed partition of Ireland , by James Connolly What partition would mean , by James Connolly The exclusion of Ulster: capitalist Home Rule tricksters , by James Connolly Introduction , by Sean Matgamna It is very well known that James Connolly and most of the Irish labour movement were bitterly hostile to Partition, and it is also well know that Connolly was telling the truth when he predicted it would “mean a carnival of reaction both North and South”. Partition created two religious-sectarian states. They...

“I have always believed in discontent”

Part three of a series on Charlotte Despard, a feminist and socialist who became active in London in 1890, at the age of 46, and remained active until her death in 1939 at age 95. Previous articles have covered her activity in London to 1921 ( Solidarity 633 ), and in Dublin 1921-26 ( 634 ). After her dismay at the Civil War and the lack of social radicalism from Irish Republicans, in 1926 Charlotte Despard had perked up. Her optimism refuelled, she wrote “Communism is growing extraordinarily; we mean to try and start a group here; so far as Society is concerned, that is the only hope for this...

A titanic struggle: the Dublin Labour War, 1913-14 (part 2)

This is part two of the section on the 1913-4 Dublin Labour War in our series on 'Connolly: politically unexpurgated' What is the truth about the Dublin dispute? What was the origin of the Dublin dispute? These are at present the most discussed questions in the labour world of these islands, and I have been invited by the editor of the Daily Herald to try and shed a little light upon them for the benefit of its readers. I will try and be brief and to the point, whilst striving to be also clear. In the year 1911 the National Seamen’s and Firemen’s Union, as a last desperate expedient to avoid...

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